


clovers & compass

by mulgogish



Category: Stray Kids (Band), fromis_9 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Attempt at Humor, Camping, Fantasy, Gen, How Do I Tag, I Tried, currently editing characters please understand, gasping, squint for ships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:08:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21630745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mulgogish/pseuds/mulgogish
Summary: "Isn't it obvious? We're lost.""Ah, that makes the eighteen of us."
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	clovers & compass

**Author's Note:**

> im back with another fromiskz :""">  
enjoy! i havent been writing since uni ruined me, but i'll try posting some others this month uwu

A dreadful day it was, under the scorching sunlight they had to climb a god forsaken mountain. How is that seniors always get the bad camping agenda? It's boring, and it's at least 60 degrees in the middle of May. Hyunjin groans next to Jeongin as they were told to create two lines before they proceed. "We're graduating in three weeks, and we're here dying out in this heat." He whines, wiping his face with a face towel. "Don't they want us to graduate?" 

  
Minho scoffs from behind, admittedly as annoyed as Hyunjin (and the rest of the class). "I can't believe they had us unpack our bags inside the cottage, but they won't let us rest." He stops complaining when he hears a screech beside him. Looking over, Minho noticed Jiwon gaping at him. "What?" 

Jiwon turns to their classmates behind them, "Anyone wanna change partners with me?" 

"Shut up." Minho hisses, pulling Jiwon along with him as the teacher tells the class to move along. 

  
"It's a rocky path, don't create a fuss. If you fool around, you will get injured and so will the people behind you." Their teacher warns them as she leads the way, turning around from time to time to inspect if the kids are following her.

  
"Changbin, change partners with me." Jiwon whispers once they were turning to a slippery path, close to the river. 

Changbin turns from speaking to Jisung to face Jiwon, a scowl on his face. "What? No way."

Jiwon was about to reply when Minho caught her hand, "Dammit, watch your steps." Jiwon looks at her right to find a pit, almost as far down as the path they just went through. Her eyes widen, before following Minho, heart beating fast from the sudden scare. 

The class stops when they reached the middle of the mountain, the teacher turning her attention to Seoyeon who got hurt while they were walking along a path full of twigs. "Why are you wearing shorts? I specifically told the class to wear something that _covers_ your legs to avoid...this." She scolds the young girl, cleaning the wound with water before putting a bandage over it. 

  
-

  
They start to walk again, and they probably don't know what they're hiking for, just, it's part of the camping itinerary, so they must do it. Gyuri hears Woojin explain the different trees and plants they notice along the way. His face lighting up as he tells about them to his partner. "You must like plants so much, huh?" Gyuri interrupts, continuing to walk behind them. Saerom and Woojin looked at her and smile. "Yeah, I'll be taking Botany in college."

Chaeyoung whistles from beside Gyuri, "Glad someone has their life figured out." The three laugh at Chaeyoung's humour. 

"It's okay, Chaengie. You'll know yours soon." 

-

  
The air is becoming a bit colder than it was a few hours ago, and, god, have they been walking for hours? Jiheon noticed the sky turning to orange hues, which means—

"It's almost sunset. It's going to get dark, we should head back." The teacher calls at her students. They were given the time to rest; they look at the never ending trail of trees, trees, and more trees. 

  
_What did they even hike for?_ Jiheon questions everything they did until now before standing up to brush off the dirt on her clothes. 

"Heonie come here!" Jiheon looks at the owner of the voice— it's Jisun smiling at her, excitement covering her voice. "Look at this!" 

Jiheon pouts, curious to see what Jisun found that made _Miss Emotionless_ happy for a second. She moves towards her friend as well as a few girls. "What a cute butterfly!" Jiheon hears Jisun cooing, crouching down to where the butterfly is resting. 

  
"Whoa, look at its wings." Hayoung gasps, eye widening in awe. Jiheon turns to Jiwon, seeing her smiling wide. "It's like it's glowing. Wow!" 

  
Saerom laughs when she hears a collective gasp from the others. The butterfly flew away when Chaeyoung tried to touch it. She hears Jiheon blaming Chaeyoung, and Seoyeon trying to speak but ended up laughing out loud. "Okay, fun's over. Let's head back—" Turning around, Saerom's smile fades, _where is everyone?_

"Wait, don't tell me..." Seoyeon stood beside a speechless Saerom. 

  
"Are we lost? Did they leave without us?" Chaeyoung mumbles, pulling Gyuri to hug her. 

  
"Let's..let's not panic..." Nagyung finally speaks from beside Hayoung, but her eyes says differently from what she just said. 

-

Jeongin laughs along as he chases Hyunjin with a twig. The other screeches when his back hits a tree. Jeongin laughs, pointing the twig in front of his friend. Chan interrupts their game of tag with a cough. "As much as I love seeing you guys have fun, but I'm afraid we need to head back." He tells them, gesturing behind with his thumb.

The other two sighs, Jeongin dropping the twig somewhere before following Chan and Felix to where the others—

  
"Wait." Hyunjin gasps, stopping in his tracks as he looks around. "Where are they?"

  
His question gets answered by another question from a panting Minho, "Hey, have you guys seen Jiwon?" 

  
Chan blinks, looking around, only to find Woojin with Jisung, Seungmin, and Changbin as he points at another type of plant he found on the ground. He stares at Felix, then at Minho. The sun is almost setting, it's going to get really dark out in a few minutes. 

  
"We need to head back. Now." Chan breathes, worriedly, walking towards the other four. "Hey, we're kind of lost." 

-

Jiwon runs through the same place for a while, jumping from one tree to another, as if it'll answer their questions and lead to where the rest of the class are. Saerom continues to tell them not to panic as they walk as a group of nine along the dark path. The sun set about five minutes ago. The moon now occupying the night sky, and it's not a lot of help since it's covered by the leaves of the trees. 

  
Then they hear rustling. 

  
"What the heck?!" Jiheon whispers, angrily. She's annoyed at how creepy this camping is beginning to unfold. She's here to have a good time, not to die. 

  
"Stay calm." Jisun tells them, opening her arms wide in front of her friends, moving away from the tall bushes. "Walk backwards." She whispers and the rest follows. 

"...Impossible!" 

  
They all scream when the bushes open in half. The girls scrambling away to hide behind the trees. As they hide, they also heard a scream, from the _creatures_ that walked out. Chaeyoung blinks, gripping Nagyung's arm tightly that made the girl wince in pain. She takes a peek from the trunk of the tree, and blinks again. 

  
"Wait. _Wait,_ wait." Chaeyoung repeats, shaking her head in disbelief before stepping out with Nagyung. 

  
"Chaeyoung!" Seoyeon whispers, eyes glaring at the other. "Get behind the tree!"

  
"Hey," Chaeyoung ignores Seoyeon, face still turned to the _creatures_ that scared them. "why are you guys here?" 

  
"Chaeyoung? Nagyung?" Seoyeon hears a familiar _voice...Jisung?_ "What are _you_ guys doing here?" 

  
"Isn't it obvious?" Gyuri whines from the tree in front of Seoyeon's. Her face planted tiredly on the trunk. "We're lost." 

  
"Ah, that makes the eighteen of us." 

  
-

The two groups roam around the area, searching for anything that might lead them back to the camping site. Saerom leads the girls while Chan was forced to lead the guys. ("I nominate Bang Chan!" Jisung's shout echoed through the dark forest.   
"Jisung shut up!")

As they walk along the seemingly endless trail of trees and darkness, Nagyung turns to her left, gasping. "Hey, look." She breathes out, amazed by what she's looking at. The group turns to the same direction, making the same sound as Nagyung, in unison. 

  
There's a stone path, surrounded by clovers that shine through the moonlight. It's nothing like they've seen before, as Saerom crouches down to observe the small plant. "It's...purple?" Saerom hums, confusion in her voice. "And, it's glowing..." She continues with her furrowed eyebrows. Seoyeon follows Saerom, observing the rest of the plants. 

  
"What?" Changbin squeaks, looking at the mysterious path in front of them.

"That's impossible. Clovers are _green."_ Seungmin scoffs, leaning forward to look at the plant himself, but had his eyes widen when he's been proven wrong. "This can't be true."

"They might be fake." Jiheon helps, arms crossed. "You know, like one of those battery powered decorations? Besides, it's glowing. It's probably just for show."

  
"No." Saerom gasped, plucking one, in which the rest of her classmates warns her at the same time. 

"You can't do that!" Jeongin squeals, waving his hand in front of his chest as if it'll do something to stop Saerom. "Yeah, it might be poisonous, Rom." Gyuri adds, eyes turning watery. 

  
"It's still glowing." Nagyung interrupts, eyes sparkling as she stares at the _purple_ clover in Saerom's hand. 

  
As the rest gush over the confusing plant, Chan continues to scan the place. Woojin noticed his friend's wandering eyes, and calls his attention. "What are you looking for, Chan?" 

  
He hears Chan hum, stretching his arm out to grab something from the ground, between the clovers. "A compass." 

  
"Huh?" Jisun curiously glance to where Chan is currently rooted at, compass at hand. "Is it good to use?" 

  
Chan squints his eyes, scanning the device thoroughly. His eyes widen when the arrows move unsteadily. It was weird, everything about this place is weird, but as Chan continues to stare at the compass he noticed that it stopped at a certain direction a few seconds longer every time it turns. "A broken compass." He concludes, putting it inside his pants' front pocket. "Let's head north." 

The others followed Chan's order, taking the stone path, careful not to crush any clovers along the way. The girls took one each, even with the annoyed warning from Seungmin, that it might be as poisonous as Gyuri said. "But what if it's not? It's really pretty, too." Nagyung argues before they went on their way. Chan and Saerom leading the group, protecting them for any dangerous things or _creatures_ they might encounter. 

  
"You scream at flying insects, yet you want to protect us from dragons?" Minho scoffs as he mocks Chan's attempt at bravery. Being one of the oldest in the group of friends, he always found a sense of responsibility for them. But yeah, Minho's right, he's scared of insects (especially when they fly!)

They continue to walk, finding no flying dragons or scary goblins as they follow the path. _Which is boring_, as what Hyunjin thought, and at the moment the trees moved to the side revealing a sparkling river.

"Yo, what the heck?" Jisung gasps, walking closer to the flowing body of water. Jisun comes close, too, observing it when Hayoung and Woojin stepped out to follow her. _It's...blue._ Jisun thinks, _Sure water is sometimes blue, but this one. It's different how pigmented the color blue is you'd think they put too much chlorine in here._

  
"It's so blue." Jeongin voices out Jisun's thoughts. "It doesn't smell like chlorine, but it looked like they accidentally put _too much_ of it." He stops to where the three older ones are standing. When he was about to touch the water, Woojin stops him. "We don't know what it's made of, better to be safe." Woojin tells the younger in which Jeongin nods. 

  
But as the others talk amongst themselves, about how they'll cross the shallow river, or how blue it is, Jisung does something dumb. "Jisung no—" Gyuri shouts, enough to get everyone's attention. They all eye Jisung, whose right hand already reached under the water, splashing it on Felix's pants. Jisung's eyes bulged out, scanning his friends' faces. 

"Jisung..." Chaeyoung mumbles, eyes now glued to Jisung's arm— his skin slowly having_...scales._ "Jisung, the fuck?!" She screeched walking towards where Jisung is seated on the grass, mad and confused. 

  
"Help!" Jisung shouts after a few seconds of silence. Saerom scans her surroundings for any kind of _help,_ then she flicks her eyes to the clover she's holding. 

  
"Hey," She starts, earning their curiosity. "The clover. It's glowing."

"Yeah, no shit. Just _please_ help me." Jisung whines, eyes turning watery as he looks at his blue scaled arm. 

"No, no. It stopped glowing before we found this place." Saerom looks at Jisung, then to Chan, and then to the rest. "Maybe we can use it?" 

"How?!"

Saerom sighs, gesturing Jisung to get up. "I will try rubbing it into the part where you _stupidly_ got the water on you." She rolls her eyes when Jisung mumbles an excuse. Saerom does what she said, the rest at her back watching the scene unfold. She plucks each of the four petals one at a time, rubbing it on the areas that got affected. After a few seconds, the scales disappeared. They're all sure they were looking at it as intently as they could, but they didn't know how it happened so fast. 

"...that's it?" Jiheon mumbles, leaning back after observing the scene. "It glows and can heal magic that came from a _very_ blue water flowing down a river that turn your skin into scales if you're careless like Jisung?" 

"Hey!"

Hyunjin smacks his friend's head, "Shut up, it's true." 

Chan was chuckling at Jiheon's blunt statement when he noticed the compass' arrows turning unstable again. It's pausing at west from time to time, and he guess they have to follow it. "West." He looks up, "Let's head west." 

  
-

  
"Why are we even following that thing?!" Jiwon grumbles after hitting a branch with her forehead. "It's broken!"

  
Chan sighs, continuing to lead the way. The stone path is now gone, leaving them into a narrow trail of tall, broad trees. "There's nothing else we can follow, right? It's the only thing we have." He stops, looking behind him. "Does anyone know the ins and outs of this forest?" All of them shook their heads. "See?" He sighs before walking again. 

_"Mother,_ it's gotten so dark!" Seoyeon whines, breaking a twig to pass time. "What if everyone's looking for us now? Calling our parents? I don't wanna be a lost child, I wanna graduate!"

  
"Shut your whining, Seoyeon!" Jisung groans, walking faster and passing Seoyeon in the process. 

"Guys, guys!" Hayoung whispers, frantically. She stares at an opening, the light coming from the moon is exasperatedly shown. Like a scene from an animated movie, where there's a treasure sitting in the middle of an empty space. 

"Fireflies?" Seoyeon mumbles, entering first followed by the rest. _There needs to be someone brave enough to go first, all the time._ "Haven't seen those in a while." 

  
"Not even when we were walking out here." Jisun adds, smiling to herself as she studies the place full of brightly lighted fireflies. 

  
They enjoy themselves for a few minutes, the glow of the clover shut off and the broken compass stopped turning into different directions. Jeongin laughs with Gyuri and Jiheon as they observe the firefly that's resting in Changbin's finger. "It's pretty," the latter coos. 

  
Seungmin is talking animatedly to Woojin and Saerom, asking them about school stuffs. Even in this magical place, he still talks about reality— a reality that they're a few weeks away to graduation. 

"Hey," Hyunjin whispers, smiling at Nagyung warmly. He sits beside her at a big log she found lying far to the center where the fireflies were found. Nagyung looks at him and smiles back, before turning her attention to the night sky. 

  
"I rarely see stars at night. I don't think this much shine even on rural areas." Nagyung pause, staring at Hyunjin. "You think we really have been using magic until now?"

  
Hyunjin pouts, watching his friends in front of them. "I guess so. I mean, have you ever seen fireflies this many? And the sprakling _blue_ blue water? That turned Jisung's skin into scales. That one was weird." 

  
Nagyung giggles, "I guess you're right. Though, it's not harming..." She blinks, noticing the clover she's holding turning on it glow once again. "Oh, we have to go—"

  
"I think we need to go." Chan announces at the same time. The two stood up from their seats, joining the others as they leave the place. "North." 

-

They're all tired, really, no one's got a phone with them and it looks like Jeongin's wrist watch isn't working. They all think they've been walking for hours at this point. Sure, they're all scared. Sure, they're all hungry. But that won't stop them from finding their way back, no matter how lost they seem. 

  
Right now, the group left the place where the fireflies gathered as Saerom told Chan he felt something weird was about to take place, and she doesn't want them to tackle anything dangerous anymore. So they went out there, as soon as the clovers glowed brightly enough to be called a warning. 

  
"You think we're anywhere near the site now?" Changbin mumbles, crushing leafs with his boots. "It's getting really cold, and we're all probably very hungry."

  
"Well," Chan starts, lifting his arms up to gesture at their surroundings. "We have to find it soon, or we won't get out of this loop." 

  
Seungmin's eyes widen at that, "You think we're in some sort of loop?"

"Not exactly." 

  
An unfamiliar voice replies, and they all look at each other with frightened eyes. _Who said that?_ Woojin tells himself as he grips Jeongin's hand tighter. 

  
"I'm down here." The voice speaks again, and this time the eighteen of them looked in front and then down.

  
"What are you?!" Seoyeon whispers, too afraid to speak louder as she stares at the creature in front of them. 

  
"I'm a troll." The _troll_ replies, its body almost camouflaging with the earthy ground. It has big eyes, and is about two feet tall. "Do not worry. I'm on the good side, I protect the forest."

  
Jisung steps in front, even with his scaredy cat title he managed to have the courage to do so, as his curiosity gets to him sometimes, and have so many questions to ask. "How can we be sure that you're _nice?"_ He squints his eyes at the troll. 

  
The troll looks at them, one by one, before speaking. "I will guide you to your destination." 

  
"How?" Woojin finally speaks, voice wavering a bit. 

  
The troll smiles at Woojin, looking back at Chan. "What do you seek, Chan?" 

  
"Oh, uh. I—We want to go back to the camping site." 

  
"Very well then." The troll nods, and then there's silence.

"That's it?" Saerom hums, eyes scanning the place for any changes— there's none. 

  
"I will be on my way now." The troll doesn't answer their questions but stop in front of Nagyung. "Will you be kind enough to lend me your flover?" 

  
"F-Flover?" Nagyung says, mildy confused. "This thing? It's called a flover?"

  
"Like, a combination of a flower and a clover?" Jisun asks, staring at the flover in her hands and back at the troll. 

  
"Yes, it is only seen by the chosen ones." The troll pause, pointing at the _flover_ in which Nagyung gives to it. "I will have to explain to you that, some other time. The broken compass was a lot of help, has it?" 

  
"Yes."

  
"I believe so, since you were brought to me. Some other time, kids, I will explain everything." The troll say one last time before disappearing into the forest. 

"That wasn't a fever dream, was it?" Felix mumbles, eyes wider than the usual, as they start walking again. 

  
"I believe we all saw that. So, no, that wasn't a dream." Chaeyoung answers while still looking at the direction the troll disappeared into. 

  
"Hey, hey. Guys," Hyunjin whispers, tapping Jeongin and Gyuri's shoulders. "Hey, isn't that the camping site?"

  
"Yeah," Minho exhales, his eyes staring at the light from afar. "That's the light from the lampost we saw earlier this morning."

  
"Oh my god." Jisun exclaims, smiling from ear to ear. "That's insane. Chan said his wish to the troll, and now look!" 

  
-

The eighteen of them headed to the direction of the lights. Heaving a breath of relief once they came closer to the place they were looking for. Once they got out of the forest, they noticed that their other classmates were also walking with them. As if nothing had happened, as if they weren't missing for a few hours.

  
_Were they ever missing?_

  
Gyuri runs up to Eunbi who was about to open one of the cabin doors. "Eunbi!" Gyuri calls her and the girl smiles. The others stopped walking to listen to their conversation.

  
"Hey, Gyuri." Eunbi look mildly confused, the others concluded.

  
"Did we missed anything?" Gyuri politely asked, turning to the rest of the people that she was with. "Was the teacher looking for us?"

Eunbi looks over to the rest and back at Gyuri, eyebrows pinched. "Why would she look for you guys?"

  
("That's weird." Hayoung mumbles next to Jisung. "We've been gone since sunset.")

"Weren't we gone for long?" Gyuri ask again and Eunbi laughs at it. 

  
"What has gotten into you? We literally just arrived. Like, right now? You were right behind us?" Eunbi waves her hand in front of Gyuri's face, still laughing. "Hello? Earth to Gyul?" 

  
Gyuri nods, understanding the situation, and acting like nothing weird has been going on. "Oh, _oh._ Okay, yeah. Sorry. Maybe I'm just hungry." 

  
"Then let's get cooking!" Eunbi announces. "Hey, Minho. You might wanna help out, too."

  
Minho grumbles, but walking towards the two girls' direction. "Why, why always me?"

  
"I'll help!" Jiwon raised her hand before running to Minho's side. Minho waves her off, and they start bickering as they walk to where the grill's being heated up. 

  
The rest of them shrugged the thought out of their heads and joined their other classmates with whatever they're up to. Chan and Saerom stay rooted to where they're standing. Saerom eyes the broken compass, and Chan eyes the purple clover in Saerom's hand. They look at each other; eyes full of questions, faces blank.

  
"Something tells me this won't be the last time this will happen." 

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are highly appreciated ♡


End file.
